US Marines deployed in a strategic location in Finland – this is what they are | Policy

US Marines deployed in a strategic location in Finland
The story in a nutshell:

When Finland applied for NATO membership, US Marines soon appeared in Dragsvik, Tammisaari. Since then, they have been in the Uusimaa brigade regularly.

The troops have come from North Carolina. They mainly consist of young people in their twenties and officers. Many of them are away from the United States for the first time.

The soldiers train together with the Finns and work together. The soldiers of the most recent rotation took part, for example, in the Freezing Winds exercise, where soldiers from several NATO countries practiced defending the coast.

The seventh rotation ends in Christmas week. The soldiers going home now have been here since October.

The US presence is not permanent, but it has become recurring. By calculation, they have been here every other day since summer 2022.

Why are they here?

Chief of staff Pekka Snellman’s according to which coastal forces learn from each other.

– It could be that it also has something to do with our geographical location. Hankoniemi is a strategically important area, as everyone knows, says Snellman.

US soldiers have been practicing, for example, landing on Hankoniemi even before the current rotations. For example, in 2014, when Russia had seized Crimea from Ukraine, the Americans were also training in Finland.

At that time, the similarities of the exercise to the world situation were, according to the Finnish Defense Forces, a coincidence.

Things seem familiar at the barracks. Weapons are serviced. Energy drink cans are running out. In our free time, we are on the phone. In the conscript canteen, Americans queue for their own counter. American soldiers must have a lot of protein in their diet. In other words: more meat is available to them than to Finns.

A group of 200 soldiers can be distinguished from the United States by the pattern and colors of their field uniforms. And the mustache. It is a tradition that many people grow mustaches on assignment abroad. The rule is that they must not be fringed, and they must not extend over the upper lip.

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The US brings its soldiers to Europe to secure NATO’s eastern border

After Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States has brought more of its soldiers to Europe.

There have been 80,000-100,000 of them in Europe, right now there are 85,000 in training or rotations. The number is a big increase compared to the time before the crisis, when there were about 65,000 soldiers.

The purpose of the soldiers in Europe is to secure NATO’s eastern border. It is reported from the US European headquarters that different forces are brought to Europe depending on how the conditions live. The headquarters consults its NATO allies, so that they together achieve the deterrence and defense that is necessary.

About six thousand foreign soldiers trained in Finland this year. After the Swedes, the largest group was the Americans.

People join the US Marine Corps for many reasons and from very different backgrounds.

– Those who join the Marines to do just that do the best. They work really well under these conditions, says the lieutenant Joseph Admiral.

There may be challenges for those whose reasons for joining the army are of a different type.

– Whether they were financial or the desire to get out of wherever it was.

American military culture is distinguished from Finnish by a stricter hierarchy. Interaction between different military ranks is not as natural as it is with Finns.

– Officers and non-commissioned officers are a different caste, Chief of Staff Snellman says.

The task of the junior and senior officers leading the unit is to make work in Finland useful and meaningful. The barracks are the soldiers’ home. Soldiers clean their rooms in the morning, the work is maintenance, training and studying. According to the Admiral, his job is to make this a place the young recruits don’t hate. It means appropriate work, appropriate freedom.

Two beers

You can often leave the barracks in the evenings. Even then, the rules of conduct apply – disruptive behavior is not appropriate. You may only take two doses of alcohol for entertainment.

The situation is similar to that of Finnish soldiers, they too have stricter rules abroad than at home.

In Finland, American soldiers train and do the same types of things as at home, but also things that are special to Finland: how to work with Finns, how many layers of clothing are needed on top and back up, how cold conditions are taken into account in medicine.

While the Finnish conscripts get to go on vacation and regular staff often work during office hours, the Americans are constantly in the barracks.

Many feel a little homesick when there are dead moments at work and training, says the corporal John Leach. Seeing the same faces day after day gets old sometimes. But at the same time, a feeling of togetherness arises with one’s own soldiers and also with Finnish soldiers.

– There will be a bond that cannot be compared to anything else.

Leach’s military career has now spanned three years. He has been a machine gunner in air defense all along. The 21-year-old man’s future plans are still short.

– On my horizon is that we go back and continue training.

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